Off-road vehicles including construction and agricultural machinery are commonly operated in an environment with high levels of air-borne contaminants. Harvesting machines, such as cotton, sugar cane, grain and forage harvesters are typically operated in environments with various straw, seeds, dust and other air-borne contaminants. These machines are accordingly fitted with expensive air filters to protect the engine. In some machines, for example, a typical paper air filter may have a 15 inch diameter and a length of 2 feet.
These machines are also typically equipped with precleaners, which aid in removing some of the air contaminants entering the engine. However, the precleaners are only about 70%-90% efficient. Accordingly, a percentage of the contaminants are constantly entering the paper air filter and shortening the life of the filter.
The typical off-road vehicle also has a cooling system which may include an oil cooling system, a fuel cooling system, an air conditioner condenser, a radiator, and a charge air cooler. A self-cleaning rotary screen is typically used to keep out most large air contaminants from entering the cooling system. On occasion, however, the radiators and other cooling systems may become clogged due to larger particles passing through or around the seal of the rotary screen.
Air contaminants may also penetrate the interior cab of these machines through fresh air vents. As a result, paper filters are used to filter outside air as it passes through the vents. However, these filters occasionally become clogged due to excessive amounts of contaminants passing through the filters.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to have a vehicle air cleaning system which would efficiently operate to provide clean air to the cooling system, engine, and cab to extend the life of the paper filters and engine, and to reduce down time due to overheating caused by cooling system clogs.